


More than Words

by umbraja



Series: Reflections [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Accents, Banter, Character Study, Female Pronouns for Pidge | Katie Holt, Fluff, Gen, Hunk (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Keith has an accent, Keith's Past, Sassy Pidge | Katie Holt, Team as Family, Texan Keith (Voltron), dialects
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-29
Updated: 2018-01-29
Packaged: 2019-03-11 05:19:36
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,736
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13517397
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/umbraja/pseuds/umbraja
Summary: “What is the point of this?” Keith almost snapped, words sharp and clearly enunciated.Pidge just smiled wider. “Science. Now, Keith. If you were to tell us three to f*ck off, what would be the plural form of you that would be most natural?”Keith glared daggers at her for that then huffed, “Don’t need a pronoun for that. Just ‘F*ck Off’ works fine.”A bit of banter leads Pidge to test her teammate’s regional pronunciations and stumbles upon one of Keith’s many secrets.Or - I am fascinated by linguistics and wanted an excuse to play with accents. And then couldn't help but get a bit mushy at the end. Cuz Hunk deserves more love.





	More than Words

**Author's Note:**

> There's a heavy focus on pronunciation in the dialog here and since most people don't know the proper characters for specific sounds (and I'm not sure AO3 even supports them) I've just kind of tried to spell things as phonetically as possible. Which is a lot harder than I thought it would be. So if you come across a strange looking word just sound it out. Feel free to ask for translations in the comments.
> 
> I used the [Harvard Dialect Survey](http://dialect.redlog.net/) to kind of pick out some subtle accent cues for the characters which are not really supported by the show (they all have a pretty neutral accent in the show). I gave Lance a slightly New England accent and Hunk a sort of Californian accent to contrast with each other and Keith's Texas Panhandle accent. I fully admit I'm not really familiar with either of those (the Texas one is my native accent) so _please_ let me know in the comments if I got anything wrong.
> 
>  
> 
> **I live on comments so please let me know what you think. Even if it's bad. I kinda need to know so I can make it better.**

“No one can resist this face,” Lance raised his brows and put on a good smoulder for example, fluttering his hands under his chin to draw attention to it. Pidge didn’t even glance up from her coding as she scoffed. 

“I’m pretty sure everyone can resist those ocean eyes,” she mocked a breathless voice for the last. Lance gasped, slapping both hands to his cheeks in audible shock that still didn’t make Pidge look at him. She just added to the wound, “Even if your lips taste like caramel. Which I’m pretty sure they don’t.” She paused briefly. “Unless you have diabetes.” She finally looked up. “Do you have diabetes, Lance?” 

“Seriously?” he frowned at her leaning against his elbows folded on top of the Green Lion’s paw. “I thought you were the smart one,” Lance shook his head with a heavy sigh. 

“ _What_?” a bright flash glinted over Pidge’s glasses from her computer screen, obscuring her glare but only adding to the expression. Lance just shrugged it off. 

“Care-a-mel,” he over enunciated the word which kind of distorted the more subtle points of the accent but his dramatic hand pointing for each of the three syllables distracted from that. Pidge arched a brow at him and took a moment to figure out what the idiot was talking about. 

“You mean car-mel?” she huffed. 

“No. I mean care-a-mel,” Lance slid around the lion’s paw to nudge her with a foot, teasingly. Pidge glared and slapped his toes for it then looked back up at him. 

“Burned sugar? Bit of butter, maybe milk?” 

“Uh. . .” Lance faltered with a blink then thought back to that one time Hunk had made caramel candies in the Garrison. That was it, right? Seems like there should be more. Pidge cleared her throat impatiently. “Yeah?” Lance twitched a tight nod. 

“Car-mel,” Pidge repeated the two syllable word. Lance’s nostrils flared but before he could just repeat his pronunciation Pidge put a hand in his face. “You know what. Let’s ask Hunk. It’s a food right? If anyone would know, it’d be Hunk.” 

Lance narrowed his eyes almost suspiciously but she made a good point. Besides, Hunk was his bro. He could trust Hunk to back him up. “Ok, yeah. Sure. But whatever Hunk says goes. No arguing.” 

“Sure,” Pidge shrugged, not really caring. She’d take whatever would get Lance to shut up. 

“Cuz you know Hunk is gonna agree with me. You just have to accept that,” Lance kept talking as they took their fight from the hangar into the kitchen. 

“What do you call the tan chewy cooked sugar candy stuff that goes on apples?” Pidge got straight to the point, not even waiting for the door to close behind them as they entered the kitchen. 

Hunk looked up from his latest attempt to transmute the Altean food goo into something more. . . food. He blinked at her a few times then glanced to his best friend standing over her shoulder. Lance smiled conspiratorially at Hunk. It was pretty obvious Lance expected him to answer with something Lance would agree to and Pidge did not. But what? The big guy hummed a thinking sound, half whine, as his mind flailed for possibilities. What could Lance possibly know that Pidge wouldn’t? 

“Don’t overthink it, Buddy. Just tells us what you call it,” Lance laughed after a few ticks, trying to be encouraging but Hunk still hadn’t come up with anything. 

“Uuh. . . I mean. . . like car-mel apples?” Hunk used the two syllable pronunciation. Lance reeled, putting a hand to his chest as if shot while Pidge turned on him with a pumped fist. 

“Ha! I told you!” the little gremlin gave Lance’s shoulder a shove and the taller boy nearly toppled over. Hunk blinked between them, confused. 

“W-what’d I do?” the big guy gave Lance a worried frown. 

Lance blinked wide eyes up at Hunk then slumped against the wall, “I’ve been betrayed. My own best friend.” 

“Sorry?” Hunk glanced nervously between the two but Pidge rolled her eyes and waved him off. 

“You know he’s just being dramatic. Like the pretentious asshole that says care-a-mel.” 

“Oh. . . _Oh_ ,” Hunk’s eyes went a little wide then he shook his head. “Well, I do say that when it’s a sauce. But the firmer candy I don’t. So, like car-mel apples but salted care-a-mel frap.” 

Lance perked up with a wry smile, “You beautiful bastard.” 

Pidge gave them both a flat look. “You do realise he just confirmed the pretentious asshole part.” 

They both gave her confused looks. 

“Salted care-a-mel frap? Please. Add soy milk and it’s a bitch drink,” Pidge paused to nod at the door as it hissed open. “Right, Keith?” 

“Yup,” the Red Paladin nodded then slapped a low five with Pidge as he walked by to dig a water pouch out of the cold storage. 

“Of course Keith would say that.” Lance shot a huffy glare at the dark haired boy. “He probably doesn’t even know what a frap is.” 

“Don’t care,” Keith shrugged as he stabbed a straw into his water then leaned back against the wall. “Only bitches drink soy _juice_ ,” he said the last word with emphasised disgust even turing the vowel into an ‘ew’ sound. 

Lance puffed up but Hunk stepped in with a soothing sound patting his back to calm him down. Lance had really been working on the whole rivalry thing. It wasn’t good for the team. He’d even stopped provoking Keith for the most part. Tried to at least. But sometimes. Just. . . some times. Keith didn’t watch as he drained his water with disinterest then pushed off the wall. 

“It’s car-mul by the way,” he threw in a third pronunciation that made Lance twitch. What the fuck? Was he just trying now? 

“Waiiiit,” Pidge drawled consideringly before Lance could call Keith on his bullshit. Lance settled back, crossing his arms, glad that Pidge was going to do it for him. “Car-mUL?” she asked curiously looking Keith over as if truly seeing him for the first time. This, understandably, made Keith uncomfortable. 

“Yeah?” Keith glanced over the others as if they might explain what just happened. They didn’t. Lance just looked smug while Hunk offered a sorry smile. Pidge though. The little gremlin grinned. 

“Oh. . .” she purred then snatched up her tablet and quickly typed away at something before flipping the screen over to show the boys. “How do you say this word?” she asked with saccharin innocence dripping from her voice. That only made the other two uncomfortable as well. 

The three boys glanced at each other, none willing to answer first. Hunk shifted with a little whine and looked to Lance who glared at Keith. This was all his fault. He should be the one to go first. Keith just glared back and crossed his arms over his chest in challenge. 

“Ant!” Hunk yelped out. “It’s Ant. Like the bug.” 

Lance blinked at his friend, “Dude. Ahnt. Like on with a ‘t’ at the end.” 

Hunk just shrugged with a weak smile then all eyes went to Keith. The Red Paladin shook his head then admitted with a sigh, “The bug.” 

“Ok, doin’ good guys,” Pidge nodded with a grin then flipped her screen back and tapped a few times before turning it over again. “And what’s this?” 

“Man-horse,” Lance quipped but Pidge gave him a glare. “Sen-tore,” he gave in with a huff then glanced to Hunk. 

“Sen-tar?” the big guy answered with an apologetic shrug. They all looked to Keith again. 

“Tar,” he answered with a clipped word, not quite a snap but quickly spoken. There was an edge of something tense to it, a bit forced. He was obviously uncomfortable. Of course that did nothing to deter Pidge from quickly typing away to find another test. Lance eyed Keith curiously but before he figured out what to tease the boy for Pidge flipped her screen over again. 

“Loyer?” Hunk asked to keep Lance from antagonizing Keith. Lance rolled his eyes with a shrug and agreed. 

“Loyer. Good to be on the same side, Buddy” he high fived Hunk then they both looked to Keith who narrowed his eyes at them. 

“Law-yer,” there was an irritated drawl in his voice, “Just like it’s spelled.” 

“Because English cares so much about phonetics,” Lance huffed but Pidge glared to shut him up. He put up both hands in surrender and hushed. Pidge gave Keith a warning glare to keep him from arguing and the boy just shrugged. She nodded then pulled up another image and showed them. 

“Is there a point to this?” Keith asked irritably. 

“Science. Now tell me what it’s called.” Pidge flashed him a challenging grin, “You first this time.” 

“Man-aze,” Keith grunted his answer, short and clipped again. Pidge eyed him a moment before turning expectantly to Hunk. 

“Uuh. . . May-uh-naze?” He offered a weak smile to Keith for being different but the other boy just shrugged it off. Lance grinned. 

“Alright! Word buddies,” He clapped Hunk on the shoulder then rolled his eyes at Pidge when she gave him an impatient little wave. “May-uh-naze. Jeez, Gremlin.” 

“Ok,” she poked at her screen a moment, ignoring all complaints, then flipped it yet again. “What’s this?” 

“A big knife?” Lance shrugged at the picture of a rather large knife. 

“Boo-ee knife,” Keith answered flatly. 

“Umm. . . you mean a Bow-ee knife?” Hunk asked delicately. Keith rolled his eyes. 

“It’s named after the frontiersman. Not the singer.” 

“Oh,” Hunk furrowed his brow briefly but Lance patted his shoulder and they exchanged a smile. Lance hadn’t even known what it was after all. Figures Keith would. 

“Remember the Alamo,” Pidge purred while Lance comforted Hunk. Keith arched a brow at her then tilted his head consideringly. She smiled wider for that and typed some more before turning the screen on them again, clearing her throat to get the other’s attention then leveling an expectant stare on all three boys. 

“Well. . . that’s a pee-kahn,” Hunk identified the picture. 

“Dude it’s a pee-can,” Lance corrected then they all looked to Keith. 

“Pick-ahn,” he answered flatly and Pidge arched a bow then considered him a moment before asking all three. 

“What do you call the smaller road that runs parallel to a highway?” 

Lance and Hunk glanced at each other then briefly to Keith but he just gave a tiny shrug so Hunk spoke up first again. “Uh, you mean a frontage road?” 

“That’s one word for it,” Pidge nodded. 

“I call it a service road,” Lance gave Hunk a sorry little shrug. 

“That’s another word,” Pidge grinned then they all turned to Keith again. He glared a moment before resigning to his fate and answered with a sigh. 

“Feeder.” 

“Not even a road?” Lance couldn’t help but prod with a huff. 

“Yeah, what’s your road servicing?” Keith snapped but Pidge put a hand between them. 

“C’mon guys. Focus,” she glared at them till they’d looked away from each other, both crossing their arms with a huff. Pidge rolled her eyes then went on. “Now, what do you call it when something is diagonal from something else?” 

“Kitty-corner?” Hunk was the first to guess again, faster this time not wanting to draw the tension out. Lance grinned with a nod. 

“Never really got why but yeah, kitty corner.” 

Keith frowned and hesitated a moment but all eyes went to him yet again so he answered flatly. “Catty-corner. Or just, you know. Diagonal.” 

“What is it with the cat thing?” Lance arched a brow, “I mean, Keith’s was different but it was still a cat.” 

“Lance. Focus,” Pidge snapped her fingers at him till the boy held up his hands in defeat again. She eyed the other two a moment to be sure they were paying attention then asked, “What do you call the driving maneuver where a vehicle crosses several lanes of traffic at once?” 

“Dangerous?” Hunk quickly guessed. 

Lance laughed, clapping the big guy’s shoulder, “I’m with Hunk on that.” 

Keith shook his head with a sigh, “Texas slide.” 

“Course Keith would know it,” Lance huffed, “The way he drives.” 

“Lance,” Pidge snapped a warning before Keith could respond. Both boys settled grudgingly back against the wall. Pidge eyed them a moment before she asked, “What do you call a non-alcoholic, sugary, carbonated beverage?” 

Hunk looked briefly to Lance then put in his guess, “Soda?” 

Lance nodded, “Soda.” 

Keith frowned, “Coke.” 

“Pepsi if you’re asking for brands,” Lance huffed. Keith made a disgusted face but Pidge cut him off before he could really express his disagreement. 

“Boys,” Pidge gave them a warning look then shook her head. “The correct answer is Dr. Pepper, the One True Drink.” Lance huffed a laugh for that, Hunk smiled with a little shrug and Keith even kind of nodded slightly in acceptance. 

“Now that’s settled,” Pidge brought them back on topic, “What does it mean when the devil’s beating his wife?” 

“Uuuh. . .” Hunk glanced to the other two, bewildered. Lance shrugged. Keith shook his head with a sigh. 

“Rain while the sun shines.” 

“Dude?” Lance huffed, “What the hell is that?” 

“An idiom,” Keith answered flatly. 

“He’s right,” Pidge grinned then interrupted Lance’s balking with another question, looking directly at Keith as she asked, “Di’jya ever used ta coud?” 

Hunk blinked at the jumble of words and Lance knotted his brows in confusion, trying to translate. Keith glared. Hard. 

“Tell tha truth,” Pidge prodded with a wide grin. 

“What is the point of this?” Keith almost snapped, words sharp and clearly enunciated. 

Pidge just smiled wider. “Science. Now, Keith. If you were to tell us three to fuck off, what would be the plural form of you that would be most natural?” 

Keith glared daggers at her for that then huffed, “Don’t need a pronoun for that. Just ‘Fuck Off’ works fine.” 

“Ok,” she laughed, “But seriously. Plural you. Come on.” 

Keith curled a lip at her and still didn’t answer but Hunk put in cautiously, “C’mon you guys.” 

Pidge waved at him for it, “See. Not so hard. Just translate that into Keith.” 

“Come. On. You. Guys,” Keith broke the sentence down carefully. 

“No. Seriously, c’mon Keith. Tell the truth,” Pidge was persistent if nothing else. Keith growled slightly. 

“What do you expect him to say?” Lance asked still not understanding what Pidge was getting at. She gave him a flat look for it then turned a determined glare on Keith. 

“Uh lawst mah tiar in tha fiar ova thar,” Pidge drawled at him. Keith’s eye twitched for the heavy accent but he didn’t otherwise respond so she went on as Lance and Hunk both stared incredulously. “Y’no at’un yonder. S’not at bigga dee-ul. We ain’t gotta tawk uhbout et er nuthin’ cuz I knowed yew don’ liak ta mit ta none that.” 

Keith grit his jaw and let the silence linger a moment as he struggled to compose a response before settling on, “Fuck. Yew. All.” He only drawled just a bit but Lance caught it. 

“Yew all?” the Blue Paladin perked up. Keith cringed and spat a little curse. 

“ _Shi-et_ ” he, unfortunately, drawled it into two syllables. 

“Oh. My. God,” Lance gaped. “She expected you to say y’all! Oh it makes sense. It all makes sense now.” Lance covered a squee with both hands to his mouth as he nearly bounced, watching Keith with bright, wide eyes. 

Keith gave Pidge a murderous look and forced himself to ignore Lance as he ground his teeth at the gremlin that betrayed him. She just smiled impishly back. Keith didn’t dare say a word right now so he jerked up his hand, middle finger raised high and waved it at her. Lance broke into a cackle so Keith thrust his other hand at him, finger raised. 

“Hey man, it’s ok,” Hunk tried to inject some reason into the situation. “We don’t care if you’ve got an accent. Coran and Allura both have one. I mean, they’re aliens, but it sounds weirdly Brittish and we don’t ever say anything about that. And you’re part alien so-” 

“Really?” Keith snapped, dropping both hands to glare at Hunk. “Yer gonna bring _that_ up now?” 

Hunk shrank, curling into himself a bit and pulling up both hands to hold slightly in front of himself with a squeaked, “Sorry.” He shrank even further at the growl Keith gave him for that. Desperately Hunk turned to Lance but his best friend only shrugged, offering no help. Pidge shook her head and started to say something but Hunk felt the need to explain himself. “You _are_ part alien though,” he blurted out, “And we never heard an accent before so. . . I mean. Galra Keith has an accent,” he shrugged with a weak laugh. Pidge rolled her eyes. Lance facepalmed. 

“S’not a damn Galra accent, Hunk” Keith hissed. 

“Yeah. I get that. I just-” Hunk fumbled and Keith started to snap again for it but Lance cut in this time, putting up his hands between them. 

“Chill guys,” the Blue Paladin turned to face Keith. “You know Hunk gets awkward when he’s nervous. He doesn’t mean anything by it.” Then Lance turned to Hunk, “Seriously though. It’s pretty obvious that’s not a Galra accent, Buddy. For, like, sooo many reasons.” 

Hunk deflated with an apologetic look. “Sorry, man.” 

Keith kept up his glare a moment but not even he could really stay mad at Hunk so after a few breaths he shook his head with a sigh. “Whatever. At least I don’t drink soy juice.” Keith shot a challenging look at Lance. 

“Hey. I’ll have you know-” Lance started but Pidge cut him off. 

“That you’re a pretentious douchebag trying to sound all fancy by mispronouncing words.” 

“Hunk says care-a-mel too!” Lance gasped turning to the Green Paladin. 

“Ahnt,” Pidge reminded and Keith took the opportunity to slip out while those two argued. Hunk frowned as he watched the door close behind the dark haired boy. Lance could handle Pidge on his own but Hunk felt bad every time Keith just walked out of a conversation like that. He knew Keith wasn’t trying to be rude but. . . well, it seemed really lonely. Hunk gave his Garrison friends a little wave, not that they stopped their arguing enough to notice, then stepped out. 

The hall was empty. For as short as he was Keith could walk pretty fast. But there were only a few places he’d be: Red’s hangar, the training deck, that one window he liked to stare through, or his room. Hunk took a guess and headed for the training deck. 

Keith was there. Even though he’d probably just come from there before getting water from the kitchen. Keith must have needed to work off some frustrations after that conversation. Hunk tried not to distract him and just watched as Keith performed a brutal takedown on the training robot. He was using both blades today, the red bayard and his Marmora sword. Hunk couldn’t help but watch the purple blade. Oh, how he wanted to take that thing apart. It was just short of magic how the blade transformed from knife to sword with just. . . whatever magic Keith did to ‘awaken’ it as the Blades called it. 

“Ya jus’ gonna stand there gapin’ at me or ya got sumthin’ ta say?” Keith half turned to glare at Hunk after he’d dropped the bot. 

“I’m really sorry, man,” Hunk instantly apologized then shook his head and forced himself to stand a little straighter. “I just make these connections sometimes and there’s nothing to it. You know I don’t have a problem with your Galra side. Or. . . accent?” 

Keith eyed the big guy a moment then shook his head with a sigh, “I know. S’ok.” He deactivated both blades and tucked them away as he walked over to pick up a towel from the back wall. 

Hunk watched Keith wipe sweat from his face and neck then asked carefully, “Why do you hide it?” 

Keith didn’t answer right away, just paused then went back to cleaning up, even took the time to open a drink pouch before talking at his hands, not making eye contact as he spoke. “Just one more thing. Y’know?” he turned a questioning look on Hunk after the words were said. 

“Uh. . . not really?” the big guy rubbed the back of his neck with a weak smile and shrug. Keith frowned slightly and looked back at his hands. He took a moment but did keep talking, quietly. 

“Not many people have accents anymore,” Keith kind of shrugged and hesitated before admitting, “I got picked on for it.” 

Hunk blinked, not sure he’d actually heard that right. He didn’t want to ask but, “You were. . . bullied?” 

Keith tensed slightly then sort of shook his head with a shrug, still not making eye contact. “Nuthin’ real bad. Not usually. I. . . I knew how ta fight so it was jus’ words. Mostly.” 

“Words can be pretty bad, man,” Hunk frowned in sympathy. Keith looked up at him with a furrowed brow then really looked at him. Yeah. Hunk would sympathise with this. Out of all of them Hunk was the most likely to have been verbally bullied. Awkward teddy bear he was. His size probably protected him from the physical stuff but that was just one more thing they could call names about. Keith hesitated a moment then shook his head. 

“It was just one more thing that made me different. One more thing they could call out. I couldn’t change any tha other stuff. But I could learn ta hide an accent.” 

Hunk just stared at Keith a moment, watching the smaller boy frown into his hands looking almost. . . vulnerable. It was a strange look on Keith. Hunk wasn’t sure what to make of it but he understood. 

“Yeah,” Hunk nodded slightly. “I was picked on a lot too. I’ve always been awkward and kinda. . . big so. Yeah. I know kids can be really mean,” he offered a weak smile then hesitated briefly before going on. “But we’re your friends, Keith. You don’t have to hide things from us.” 

“I know,” Keith nodded then turned midnight eyes on Hunk with a weak smile. “I’m just. . . not used to this team stuff. I was moved around too much as a kid to really. . . belong anywhere so. . . I never had friends. Before.” 

“Oh,” Hunk blinked. He’d never heard Keith talk about his childhood and the almost timid expression on his face was so completely foreign to what Hunk knew of the Red Paladin it was a little unsettling. But he was talking. Opening up even. So the big guy held it together with a nod, “Yeah. That makes sense actually.” Hunk offered a sorry little smile when Keith’s eyes narrowed slightly at him for that. “I mean, you’re not really good with people. And whenever we try to get close you kind of shut us out.” 

Keith’s near glare faltered. “I don’t mean to,” he looked back at his hands again, shoulders slumping slightly. “It’s just. . . Every time I let someone get close. . .” he trailed off with a frown then shook his head. “Forget it. Doesn’t matter.” He pulled the towel off his shoulders and started packing his things away to leave. 

“You’re doing it right now,” Hunk tried to be gentle about it but he wanted Keith to stop running away. 

The Red Paladin froze for being called out. He hesitated a moment then shook his head and talked as he finished packing up his bag, not making eye contact. “My mom left before I can even remember.” Hunk blinked at him and frowned then started to say something no doubt comforting but Keith went on. “My dad. . . died. When I was eight.” Hunk shifted awkwardly for that. He’d known about Keith’s mother since the Marmora thing but not about his dad, not that Keith was an orphan. And the way he hesitated before settling on a word for what happened suggested there was more to it than just that. More Keith didn’t want to talk about. 

“Oh man, I’m sorry,” the big guy couldn’t help but apologize. 

Keith frowned at his bag then shook his head, “Not yer fault. Was a long time ago. I didn’t have it bad as some. Y’know. Just. . .” He trailed off with a shrug then started rearranging things in his bag, an excuse not to make eye contact. “I was passed around the foster system after that. Family ta family. Didn’t take. Ended up in a group home til. . . A nice old couple. They had a farm. Cotton fields, hound dogs, chicken coop, barn cats, couple cows, ornery old mare.” He smiled a bit wistfully at the memory then shook his head and zipped up his bag. “They were nice. But they were old. I went back to tha group home when they died.” Keith let a heavy little pause linger a moment before he continued, pulling his bag onto his shoulder as he spoke, “When Shiro met me I’d been through sixteen foster families and three group homes. I just never seemed ta ‘fit’ any of them.” He paused again, finally turning to look at Hunk. “By that time I’d stopped trying. It’s easier not ta get close. It doesn’t hurt as much. Havin’ friends. Family. It’s just more ta lose.” 

Hunk stared a moment, mixed shock and sympathy with just a little bit of hurt. He’d not known any of that but the important part was the last. What a lonely attitude to have. “We’re more than just a liability, man.” 

“I _know_ ,” Keith tried to reassure quickly but it didn’t help the sad look on the big guy’s face. Keith shook his head with a muttered sigh. “This is why I don’t talk to people,” then put up a hand to stop any argument or consolation. “Don’t. . . Hunk. Look,” Keith paused to make eye contact and hold it, proof he was serious. “You. This team. You’re my _family_. Maybe I don’t show it but I care about you. A lot. Ok. And maybe that doesn’t mean much to you” he held up a hand to keep Hunk from correcting him on that, “But it means _everything_ to me. I don’t have the kind of friends most people do. It takes a lot for me to let people in. But once I do. . .” he trailed off a bit with a slight shrug and weak smile. “I sucker punched Iverson for saying the Kerberos failure was Shiro’s fault. In the middle of class. In front of witnesses. I got expelled for it. That might not be such a big deal for you but for me. The Garrison was my home. I didn’t have anything else. But I threw it all away just to defend Shiro’s honor,” he huffed a slightly bitter sound for the thought. 

“Yeah. That was pretty. . . uh. Hot-headed of you,” Hunk offered a weak laugh. 

“Thanks,” Keith deadpanned then shook his head. “Point is. This team’s my family and I do stupid shit for the people I care about.” 

Hunk considered a moment then smiled with watery eyes, “You really think we’re bros?” 

Keith blinked at the question then arched a wary brow for the look on Hunk’s face. “Yeah. . .” he answered cautiously then arched the other brow when the big guy took a tentative step closer with a wide smile. Keith recognized this as immanent hug sign and half muttered, “Don’t make it gay,” but didn’t even try to step away when Hunk just laughed and wrapped him up in a big bear hug that pulled the shorter boy’s feet off the ground. Keith took it like a cat, glaring to deny he really enjoyed it and only squeaked slightly when he couldn’t breathe then stumbled a bit to catch his footing as he was put back down. Hunk took a step back to beam at him. 

“We love you too, man.” 

Keith blinked at the words then huffed an awkward sound and looked away with a shrug. “Yeah,” he paused to look back at Hunk. “Just don’t tell Lance.” 

Hunk laughed a warm and genuine sound then shook his head with a smile. “Don’t worry. He’d totally abuse it so I won’t tell Lance that you’re willing to punch people for us.” 

Keith’s face softened to one of those rare, real smiles as he nodded. “Thanks big guy.” 

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Comments sustain me so please leave some.


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